How Many Vehicles Are Used for Rideshare, Delivery, or Work?

Key Findings

9.6% of U.S. household vehicles (about 22.4 million of 232.8 million) are used for some business purpose.
Rideshare is a surprisingly small share of that commercial use: just 8.3% (1.86 million vehicles), compared to 74.3% for general business purposes (16.6 million) and 17.2% for delivery service (3.86 million).
Rideshare-specific vehicles make up only 0.8% of the entire national vehicle fleet, a much smaller footprint than the cultural attention on Uber and Lyft might suggest.

FHWA/BTS, 2022 National Household Travel Survey, public-use vehicle file (vehv2pub.csv), variables VEHCOMMERCIAL, VEHCOM_RS, VEHCOM_DEL, VEHCOM_OTH, weighted by WTHHFIN.

Contents

Introduction
How Many Vehicles Are Used Commercially
Rideshare, Delivery, or Something Else?
What This Means
Data Sources

01 Introduction

This site's rideshare and delivery usage analysis covers the consumer side: how many Americans have ridden in an Uber or received a delivery. The 2022 National Household Travel Survey also asks the opposite question, directly of vehicle owners: is this specific vehicle used for rideshare, delivery, or other business purposes? This article uses that data to measure the supply side of the gig and business-use economy, one vehicle at a time.

FHWA/BTS, 2022 National Household Travel Survey, public-use vehicle file, variable VEHCOMMERCIAL.

02 How Many Vehicles Are Used Commercially

Of 232,837,104 household vehicles in the survey, 22,358,531 (9.6%) are used for some business purpose.

FHWA/BTS, 2022 National Household Travel Survey, public-use vehicle file, variable VEHCOMMERCIAL, weighted by WTHHFIN.

Response	Vehicles	Share
Used for business	22,358,531	9.6%
Not used for business	209,934,868	90.4%

FHWA/BTS, 2022 National Household Travel Survey, public-use vehicle file, variable VEHCOMMERCIAL, weighted by WTHHFIN.

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03 Rideshare, Delivery, or Something Else?

The survey then asks vehicles used for business exactly what kind: rideshare, delivery service, or other business purposes (sales calls, trade work, and similar uses). A vehicle can be used for more than one.

FHWA/BTS, 2022 National Household Travel Survey, public-use vehicle file, variables VEHCOM_RS, VEHCOM_DEL, VEHCOM_OTH, weighted by WTHHFIN.

Business Use	Vehicles	% of All Vehicles	% of Commercial Vehicles
Other business purposes	16,614,373	7.14%	74.3%
Delivery service	3,856,088	1.66%	17.2%
Rideshare	1,862,519	0.80%	8.3%

FHWA/BTS, 2022 National Household Travel Survey, public-use vehicle file, variables VEHCOM_RS, VEHCOM_DEL, VEHCOM_OTH, weighted by WTHHFIN. Percentages calculated against the 232,837,104-vehicle total and the 22,358,531-vehicle commercial-use total, respectively. The three categories sum to 22,332,980, within 0.1% of the overall commercial-use count, consistent with most commercially-used vehicles serving one primary purpose.

Rideshare is the smallest of the three, not the largest. Despite the outsized cultural and media attention on Uber and Lyft, rideshare accounts for fewer vehicles than either general business use or delivery service. "Other business purposes" alone, a broad category covering sales, trades, and similar work, involves nearly 9 times as many vehicles as rideshare.

Calculated: 16,614,373 ÷ 1,862,519 = 8.9x. FHWA/BTS, 2022 National Household Travel Survey, public-use vehicle file.

04 What This Means

For the roughly 22.4 million vehicles used commercially, the cost implications compound: business use typically means more miles, which means faster wear (see this site's vehicle lifespan analysis), more frequent maintenance, and a different insurance risk profile than purely personal use. That most commercial use is general business or delivery, not rideshare, also means the relevant tax and reimbursement question for most of these owners is the same one covered in this site's IRS standard mileage rate history, not rideshare-platform-specific tax treatment.

05 Data Sources

Federal Highway Administration / Bureau of Transportation Statistics: 2022 National Household Travel Survey, public-use vehicle file (variables VEHCOMMERCIAL, VEHCOM_RS, VEHCOM_DEL, VEHCOM_OTH). nhts.ornl.gov
This site's related analysis: Rideshare and Delivery Usage in America (the consumer side of this same question) and IRS Standard Mileage Rate History.

Disclaimer. This article is for informational purposes only and is not tax advice. Figures are U.S. national averages from 2022 survey data and do not reflect any individual vehicle or owner's situation. A vehicle may be used for more than one business purpose, so the three category shares are not strictly mutually exclusive. Consult the IRS or a tax professional for guidance on business-use vehicle deductions.